Kabale District officials, led by the Kabale District chairperson Patrick Besigye Keihwa and the District Chief Administrative officer Edmond Ntimba on Monday afternoon halted the construction of Buramba Health Center III for a week, amid shoddy work claims.
Buramba Health Center III located in Buramba Parish, Rubaya sub county Kabale District was allocated Shs650 million meant for setting up a new structure at the facility including in the staff quarters.
SAGM Technical services limited was hired to do the job, within a period of six months, starting from January this year, according to the contract that was signed by the company and Kabale District local government.
However, the health committee of Kabale District, led by the Kamuganguzi District councilor Julius Barusya in their inspection routine discovered that SAGM was using substandard blocks and sand to set up the facility.
Barusya and other councilors made an alarm that caused uproar in the district, forcing the district administration to visit the site under construction.
The contractor was accused of doing the job at a slow pace, using some substandard blocks, failing to engage stakeholders in site meetings and failing to pay workers at the site.
According to the document that was prepared by the Chief Administrative officer, the project had been at 24 percent two months to completion.
Eng Paddy Mwesigwa, the Director of SAGMA technical services among other excuses said Covid-19 lockdown had caused him to slow in the construction of the facility.
“My workers had left for home, had no materials to use from March to the whole of April” Mwesigwa said.
Keihwa who was leading the delegation, resolved to halt construction for seven days to allow the contractor to pay workers and change the site engineer as the district committee reviews the type of blocks the engineer was using to set up the structure.
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